Clouded Illuminations
by Swiftchanted
Summary: The eleventh pilgrimage. No one was said to have survived the last pilgrimage Terra Nova would ever receive from 2149. Boy were they wrong.
1. Prologue

**Title: **Clouded Illuminations

**Fandom: **Not gonna say, because it'll give everything away. (Damnit, that rhymed. Just what I was avoiding.)

**Rating: **T

**Summary:** The eleventh pilgrimage. No one was said to have survived the last pilgrimage Terra Nova would ever receive from 2149. Boy were they wrong.

**A/N: I thought I'd just write this, post it and see what you guys think. I personally LOVE one character in this, she's been in my head for a really long time, and I think you guys will love her. She's ready to make her debut. ;)**

* * *

><p>Going to the Badlands with a team? Yes.<p>

Exploring the Badlands with Jim Shannon and no one else? _Not a chance._

For the past hour, Taylor had been trekking along, Shannon right on his heels like a lost puppy dog talking about the budding relationship between his daughter and Reynolds. Guz and Reilly had gone in the opposite direction, Dunham and Reynolds in another direction. Taylor wished he'd gone with someone else. Because all Shannon had done was talked his damn ear off. Taylor would occasionally nod and sound off a little hum every once in awhile just to give Shannon the impression that he was immersed in the whole little debacle. In all honestly, Taylor could care less about the whole thing. All he knew was that Shannon was getting louder and his voice was getting higher and higher.

The Badlands was not much of a pleasant place; it most definitely lived up to its name. Like most of the continent, the temperature was extremely hot and the humidity was horrible. Taylor wiped the sweat from his brow and cocked his gun a bit higher up. Behind him, Jim was now discussing the matter of whether or not Maddy would be out of the house in under a year or longer. It was taking every ounce of willpower Taylor had in him to not turn around and tell Jim to shut the hell up.

They'd been out here all day, and there was a big fat nothing. Not even the slightest hint of the Phoenix Group, Sixers, there hadn't even been the threat of a dinosaur passing through. Everything was quiet. Too quiet in Taylor's opinion, but quiet nonetheless. Unfortunately, that silence resorted in nothing drowning out Shannon's ranting. Finally, Taylor whirled around and pinched the other man's lips together. Shannon's cheeks then tinged pink as Taylor growled, "We're listening for wildlife, not your each and every feeling." Shannon nodded before following the man again as they met back up with the other team in a small clearing.

"Nothing, sir." Reilly said as her and Guzman finally approached, covered in sweat. Taylor sighed frustrated as he ran his fingers across the top of his head. Reilly shrugged. "Sir, we're in the middle of the Badlands, if Lucas and the Phoenix Group were still here, we would have come across them at the very edges when we crossed into the area." Shannon nodded in agreement.

"Since it's clear we're not going to get anything, I say we just retreat." Taylor finally surrendered, holding both hands up in defeat. As the six of them all turned and began walking back, there was the slight sound of footsteps. Of course, Jim Shannon was the one who was freaking the freak out over it, saying that it was Lucas or a Sixer or even better, a carno stalking them. Taylor rolled his eyes. Shannon was a good man, but there were some days when you wanted to just make him disappear.

The supposed footsteps continually grew louder, and at this point it wasn't just Shannon hearing them. Guzman would whip around and look around frantically, and occasionally Reilly would retreat a few steps before starting again. It was then when Taylor realized that there was the possibility that someone was indeed, following them. His eyes were darting around, trying to keep everything in his peripheral vision. The footsteps then grew louder, as they were almost running parallel to them. "Sir, something's out there!" Reynolds said, his voice cracking in the slightest bit of fear. Taylor just nodded, pressing a finger to his lips.

Taylor made sure that Shannon stayed behind him as he slowly began to merge into the path that was parallel to them where the footsteps were coming from. He looked around to no avail. There was no sign of life. Sighing, he knew that their ears had just been deceiving them. But before he knew it, there was a gunshot from absolutely nowhere. That was when all hell broke loose.

Jim Shannon, with all his years of cop training back in the future, began sprinting to where the anonymous gunshot had come from. Someone was behind that gun, because whoever it was had begun to pick up speed, practically flying through the jungle at a superhuman speed. Taylor was shouting for Shannon to fall back, but of course, his one track mind wasn't paying a bit of attention to the commander. It was all about catching the bad guy with Shannon. There was a scream-not the scream a man would make, but more like a teenage girl would. For the slightest second, Shannon looked at Taylor as the others gathered around him, their guns aimed and ready to fire. Taylor began closing in on the target, a tactic that never failed him in the end.

To the total surprise of everyone, a teenage girl no older than fifteen stood in front of them. She was holding a sonic pistol, aiming it directly at Taylor. Shannon slouched a bit as he slightly retreated behind Taylor, his gun still inclined at the girl. Her blonde hair was in a falling ponytail, the fallen wisps plastered to her face and neck in grime and sweat. Her clothes were torn and bunched up-evident she was trying to beat the heat too. Her blue eyes were absolutely lifeless, and they just stared back at Taylor as she panted.

"Lower your gun." Taylor said. The girl shook her head, still breathing hard.

"I swear I'll shoot you. I swear to God I'll do it." Her voice was raspy, hoarse from most likely the lack of water, and Taylor watched as her finger twitched. Jim Shannon stepped up; his gun lowered just a bit in an act of respect. Taylor knew that Shannon was going to try and negotiate with her, that he was squirming inside not to defend the girl.

"You don't want to do that." Shannon said calmly. The girl cocked an eyebrow in question as she continued breathing hard. She was shaking, and as the man began to slowly but surely move towards her, he could see scared tears in her eyes. "Now, all I need you to do is to give me the gun, and we'll take you back to camp with us." Taylor tensed with hesitation, but allowed Shannon to continue. Dunham and Guzman never moved from their positions, but Reilly and Reynolds began to slowly lower their weapons.

"I-I don't have anything you want," she said, her voice quivering at one point before she tried to regain composure. "I'm not from Terra Nova; I don't even know where the hell I'm at!" Shouting, the look on her face grew harder. Reilly and Reynolds then fully lowered their weapons in shock. Taylor slowly lowered his halfway as he just stared at the girl.

"Do you think we're from the Phoenix Group?" Shannon asked, getting closer to her. The girl sensed what he was doing and began backing up into one of the trees at the same pace the sheriff was. Nodding furiously, the girl kept her gun at the same inclination, if not higher. Shannon shook his head, giving the girl a small smile. "We're from Terra Nova; you have nothing to worry about."

The girl didn't seem to buy the story. "How do I know that?" Shannon turned around and motioned for Taylor to step forward. Taylor took a stride towards the girl, who frantically skittered back a few steps. Holding out his hand, he nodded in her direction.

"I'm Commander Nathaniel Taylor," he said, waiting patiently for the girl to shake it. She just eyed him warily as he continued talking in a calm and low voice. "If you come with us, it'll all be over. You won't have to stay here. Just trust me, and come with us."

"You promise?"

Nodding, Taylor gave a tiny smile. "I promise." The girl lowered her gun and grasped Taylor's hand. The commander was shocked; her hand was so tiny and delicate that he was a bit scared he'd snap it if he gripped any tighter. The calluses on her hands were rough, and her blue eyes began searching his for solace and some sort of succor. They were the last thing that she saw before her own azure eyes fluttered and shut as she passed out. Her knees buckled, and with one fluid motion, Taylor caught her head before she'd collide with the ground. Gently picking up the girl, he looked at his soldiers with a look on his face that could only mean one thing-the girl had been looking for them, and they'd just so happened to find her.

_What were the odds._

* * *

><p><strong>AGH. I hate referring to my baby as "the girl", "that girl", and "her", because in truth, her name is extremely unique :] But I don't want to tell you her name until next chapter! So yeah. Before you give up on this story, don't think that it's going to be some extremely cliche story that you've read a hundred times over. This one is HOPEFULLY unique. Anyways, I think that this was a pretty decent prologue, seeing as how I wrote it in like thirty minutes. The next chapter will be up soon! &amp; I'm not giving up on 'That Fighting Chance'; I was just posting this to see if you guys were interested in this. <strong>**If you liked it, REVIEW. Good things happen to those who do. **

**Cough cough SHIRTLESS REYNOLDS.**


	2. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hello there! Alright, just to make sure people are actually interested in this…could I maybe get five reviews or something? Everyone who reviews gets a special something…wink wink. I changed the title name. Haha it seemed too cheesy. So it's now entitled That Dumb Story that the Dumb Blonde Writing It Conjured Up While Drinking Coffee. Just kidding. Maybe.**

* * *

><p>"Tango to Terra Nova, do you read me?"<p>

"Terra Nova to Tango, copy."

"We're coming in and we're coming in hot. Call Doctor Shannon and tell her it's an emergency. Clear a path to the infirmary and make sure no civilians are in our way, we're not stopping for anyone."

"Roger that, Terra Nova out."

Taylor had made the horrible mistake of putting Jim Shannon behind the wheel. Sure, he could have driven while Shannon held the mystery girl, but for some reason, Taylor couldn't bring himself to hand her over to him. She would occasionally twitch, but Taylor didn't know if that was her or if it was his nerves getting the better of him. He didn't know if the rumors were true, but they were because Shannon was the most reckless driver in the history of the world. It was as though the man didn't even know that the brake pedal existed and his foot was clamped down on the gas the whole way home. He swore that they'd been midair for minutes at a time.

As they drove, Taylor tried to do the math in his head. How in the world had this girl even gotten into the past? The portal had been closed for two weeks now. She was way too young to be a part of the Phoenix Group, and why would they even need someone her age? Had Lucas somehow opened another portal? Had she come through another portal from a different time period? There wasn't any way that she'd come through another portal, she'd had the same lifeless symbolizations as everyone in 2149 did. He then began to fathom the idea that she had come through on the eleventh.

There wasn't any possible way that she'd come through on the eleventh. Everyone that had come through had either died as soon as the bomb exploded or afterwards, too much smoke inhalation, burns that were too extreme, and the list went on. This girl in his arms, he never remembered seeing her come in on the pilgrimage. Never. He didn't even know someone of her age had been on the pilgrim list Hope Plaza usually sent. So that was what puzzled him the most. His train of thought wrecked as soon as Jim Shannon jumped another five feet in the air over a gigantic tree branch.

"Anything I can do for her?" he shouted at Jim as they continued to race through the jungle. He realized that he was asking the wrong person that question, but at the moment, he was the closest thing to a doctor that they had. Even though they were rapidly approaching Terra Nova thanks to Shannon's out of control driving, he didn't know that if the girl had passed out because of shock, exhaustion, or some unknown cause that would kill her faster than Jim Shannon could drive.

"Does she have a pulse?" Jim yelled back as he continued driving, never taking his eyes off of the terrain. Taylor mentally slapped himself-he knew that was the first thing he should've done, and yet, he'd sat around pondering on whether or not she had mysteriously teleported here. He gently pressed his fingers to her paling neck, and sure enough, there was a pulse. A faint pulse, but a pulse nonetheless. Sighing in relief that she wasn't dead, he nodded over in Jim's direction. Jim then began bellowing more orders over the roar of the rover. "Well, Lis would always look for wounds, so see if she's bleeding anywhere-OH FOR GOD'S SAKE!"

If they hadn't been going at top speed now, they were surely hitting more than the acceptable limit now. The distasteful roar of some god forsaken dinosaur came from behind them, and Taylor groaned. Pulling out his comm, he began to radio Terra Nova. "This is Tango, Terra Nova do you read?" In the background, Jim was shouting a long and colorful string of profanity in the direction of the dinosaur.

"Terra Nova to Tango, we're reading. The path is cleared to the infirmary."

Taylor tucked the girl closer to him and poked his head out of the rover. Sure enough, there was a carno chasing after them. It was hot on the tail of the rover the others had squeezed into, and swiveling back in, he began talking into the comm. "We're about half a klick away; get ready because we've somehow or another attracted a carno. Tango out."

Taylor then began to search for any kind of wound he could. She had a few scratches on her arms and a long slice across the middle of her abdomen. It didn't look infected and looked pretty fresh. The growing sight of Terra Nova relieved Taylor highly. If it meant getting this girl to safety, he'd jump out of the rover right then and distract the carno himself. He could hear the warning sirens sounding in Terra Nova from where they were at, and Jim was honestly flying faster than the speed of light itself. At that moment, he then swore that he'd never let Jim Shannon drive him anywhere ever again. Not in a rhino, rover, bicycle, ANYTHING.

They flew into the gate that had been opened as the sonic cannons began firing at the carno. It shrieked in frustration, and the sound of its agitation grew distant as the rovers continued straight for the infirmary. Taylor could see Elisabeth Shannon pacing outside of the building, and her head snapped to attention as the rover grew closer and closer to her. Jim, for the first time in his life it seemed, slammed on breaks and Taylor jumped out, the girl in tow. Elisabeth just raised an eyebrow as Taylor stormed into the infirmary, and she followed hurriedly in pursuit.

Finding an empty bio bed, he laid the girl out on it and whirled around, waiting on the good doctor. Elisabeth rushed over in a sort of run and slipped on a pair of gloves as she began to pull up the stats. Taylor watched as everything that he'd wanted to know about their mystery girl popped up. The statements were short and to the point however, but they were all Taylor needed to know. _**Name: Aliana Elise Murphy; Age: 14; Height: 5'4''; Hair Color: Blonde; Eye Color: Blue; Pilgrimage: 11; Status; Recruit **_

As Elisabeth began to clean the wound on her stomach, Taylor just sat there, baffled. The girl-or should he say, Aliana, had been _recruited_ and yet she'd never been to Terra Nova. She had been on the eleventh pilgrimage, the one that no one had been said to survive. More doctors and nurses began flooding the area, and Taylor was pushed back into a chair as he was immersed in all the thoughts swirling around in his head. Then probably the worst thing he could have heard that moment brought him out of his trance. "She's gone into cardiac arrest!"

_Cardiac arrest? _Taylor felt those two words punch a blow to his gut as they began to rapidly save her from death. Doctor Shannon closed her eyes in hopefulness before she began to send shocks straight to Aliana's heart. It was a tactic that they'd used a century before and it somehow saved people, so if it worked now, they'd be on the path to recovery. He watched as her back arched against its own will as they shocked her once, twice, three times, four times. And to his relief, they finally watched as her eyes shot open and she began breathing heavily.

Suddenly the swarm of infirmary staff thinned out, and Elisabeth began to stitch up the stomach wound on Aliana. Taylor slid up his chair slowly to her bedside, watching as her face contorted with discomfort. She clearly didn't like having stitches done. She gasped a bit as she turned her head ever so slightly. When she saw Taylor, it wasn't a surprise that she was a bit startled. He just smiled warmly at her. "Miss Murphy?"

"How do you know my name?" she asked; her voice raspy. She tilted her head from side to side, still uneasy as the doctor continued to stitch her up. Her hand flew to her side instinctually, but he gently put it back by her side.

"Doctor Shannon's stitching you up, you don't want to move or she might poke you and it won't be too comfortable." Aliana just nodded, swallowing. Her eyes were closed as Elisabeth began to try and speed up the the process, sensing the girls apprehension over the stitching. "Hey hey, it's okay, she'll be done before you know it," Taylor assured her, patting her hand which was clenching the railing of the bio bed.

"You never answered my question. How do you know my name?" she repeated, this time, her teeth gritted together.

Taylor shrugged. "You're lying on a bio bed. Everything about you pulls up on these things. Your name, age, height, eye color, everything." Her face lit up like a Christmas tree, her eyes dancing. He couldn't help but notice on how pretty of a blue they were; they definitely fit her and her personality.

"Everything? Who are my parents?" she asked excitedly. Taylor pulled up the stats on her again and began scrolling, looking for some sort of lineage that she might have. But sure enough, the message read the same as a lot of things on the list- _**Not yet available. **_He felt his heart drop; Aliana had gotten so thrilled about this and now he'd have to break the bad news to her.

"Well, we can't exactly view that at the time, but we'll find out sooner or later who your parents are, alright?" he said. Her face dropped as her eyes narrowed. He watched as something registered in her head and her eyes softened. She shrugged slightly before tossing her head in a bit of pain. Aliana was beginning to get jumpy and impatient; she was ready for Doctor Shannon to be done already. The commander gently grasped her hand as she turned to look at him. She was evidently uncomfortable, and her eyes were beginning to well up in tears. "Doctor Shannon, do you think we could stop with the sewing for a few minutes, let her adjust herself? Elisabeth looked up and nodded before quickly finishing the stitch she was on.

As the doctor left to go check on another patient, Aliana sat up just a bit, careful not to damage the doctor's look. She shot a grateful smile over at Taylor before adjusting the needle so it wasn't poking her. He raised an eyebrow as he watched her clear her throat, turning to look at him. "Normally I don't say this, but I'm sorry for threatening to shoot you out there." Taylor just nodded as she clucked her tongue. "So…what's going to happen now?" she asked.

Taylor pointed at her stomach. "Well first we're going to finish getting you stitched up." Aliana groaned at the obvious. "And after that, we'll clean you up, put you in something fresh and you'll get the grand tour of Terra Nova." He watched as her face contorted to a certain level. "Are you alright?" he asked.

Aliana disregarded Taylor's question and continued right on into one of her own. "How did you find me?" she asked me. Taylor couldn't help but to smirk as she shifted herself higher up onto the bed.

"I'll answer your question if you answer mine."

Sighing in defeat, Aliana rolled her eyes. "Fine. I'm perfectly fine, except for the fact that I'm being stitched up. Now I believe it's your turn." Taylor just nodded as he studied her. She had more color to her face than she did when he'd first discovered her, her eyes seemed as though they had more life to them, and he couldn't help but to see that she wasn't the type who was extremely sensitive. Except when it came to needles. They seemed to be her weakness.

"Well, if you want me to be honest with you, we really didn't intend on finding you. We were looking for someone else, someone who isn't exactly a fourteen year old teenage girl. But we just so happened to stumble across you. You came on the eleventh pilgrimage?" he replied with just another question. She had her eyes set, ready to fire back an answer before they were interrupted.

"Alright Aliana, if you wouldn't mind lying back down, we need to finish up those stitches before the extremely mild anesthetic I gave you after you woke up completely fades out." Elisabeth said with a warm smile on her face. She then helped Aliana lay back fully and picked up the needle. Closing her eyes with a gulp, Aliana braced herself as Elisabeth began to sew back up the skin.

Taylor watched as Aliana tried not to squirm while Elisabeth stitched her up. Everything was so puzzling to him. How had she survived the blast from that bomb the day of the pilgrimage's arrival? How in the world had she survived almost a month in the jungle with pretty much nothing at the bare age of fourteen? There were probably a hundred colonists just waiting outside that infirmary because they'd caught wind somehow someway that there was a mysterious girl inside the camp. But the most puzzling question, the most confusing thing about Aliana that was haunting him to the downright core?

Everything about her reminded him of his deceased lieutenant.

* * *

><p><strong>Oh wow. That was interesting. I KNOW YOU ALL LOVED THE CAMEO APPEARANCE MADE BY CARL THE CARNO. I had to name him. Duh. Anyways, so I FINALLY introduced her name. I personally ADORE it. Aliana means noble and Elise 'God is my Oath' and even though it's her last name, Murphy means descendant of a warrior. It so fits her. Just wait 'til she gets off that bio bed. She's gonna wreak some havoc, promise. But you won't get to find out what she does unless you REVIEW. <strong>

**And remember. I can arrange for a shirtless Reynolds to magically pop up. ;)**


End file.
